NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (November 17, 2022) – The Nevis Island Administration (NIA) will pay an honorarium to frontline workers and those individuals who provided auxiliary support assisting in the COVID-19 response on the island of Nevis, by November 30, 2022. Premier of Nevis, Hon.
Mark Brantley, Minister of Finance in the NIA, gave an update on the planned payment during his monthly press conference on November 17, 2022. “I am pleased to announce that after some deliberation and some internal consultation and the appointment of a team [of technocrats] to look at this, that we have come up with some categories of workers.
We are seeking to reward those by a small token of appreciationwe can never afford to pay them for what they didwho worked diligently and were on the front lines in the fight against COVID, between the period March 2020 to October 2021… “We have seen the value in the amount of $2000, which again is not sufficient to compensate, but it is not intended as compensation, it is intended as a token of appreciation.
This is not something we promised or committed to, but it is something we informed the nation of a series of bonuses and other benefits to be awarded, and at very early dates at that. It is a truly wonderful feeling to once again have in place a government that truly places its people first and foremost.
Let us all be thankful for this, and resolve to continue giving our prime minister and his team our fullest support. feel is appropriate given the circumstances and given the fact that some people really went above and beyond and really put country above self. At a time when we called upon our people to do more and to give more, some responded and the thinking is that those who responded ought now to have a token of appreciation to say thank you.” The categories of workers who will benefit from the honorarium are Immigration and Customs Officers, front line officers of the Nevis Air and Sea Ports Authority (NASPA), and dispatchers of the Ministry of Tourism stationed at the Vance Amory International Airport (VAIA) and at the Oualie water taxi pier; all COVID-19 certified taxi operators who were involved in moving passengers to and from the various quarantine sites, and all COVID-19 water taxi operators who were involved in moving inbound and outbound passengers to and from Nevis; officers of the Emergency Operation Centre; nursing and other auxiliary staff for the Alexandra Hospital, health centres and Mental Health Unit; allied staff at the Ministry
